Coffee Talk
by AngelOfDeath10
Summary: AU KiMa, Subways are not overtly romantic but Maka isn't so sure the way the man who shares her train in the morning looks at her. The line between creepy and flattering is much narrower when an Albarn is involved. (Twoshot!)
1. Chapter 1

There's definitely a contrarian sort of thing going on when people tell me "this pairing could never happen." Naturally I want to imagine a scenario where that was completely proved wrong. This is how this happened. Looks like I'm alternating chapters of my SoMa piece with KiMa oneshots lately. To make them work I have to pretend that Maka has never met Soul, basically. That poses other quandaries.

This is the kind of thing that felt like it had a pretty active world behind it, but I'm happy with it being a oneshot.

PS. The Piketty book is real. And interesting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater's characters. Fanfic is, as it has always been, for the lulz.

* * *

He was staring again.

Maka pretended to read her book, _Capital in the Twenty-First Century_ , while at the same time keep close tabs on the man from across the subway car. It wasn't too hard to spot him as he sat in the same spot every day, or stood in the general vicinity of said spot until it opened up. Impossible to miss due to his distinctive hair and impeccably tailored suits, she had only truly started noticing him a month or so ago when she had looked up and met his eyes briefly. The jolt she had felt had nothing to do with the sudden stop they experienced shortly after.

Methodical to a fault she had sat in different seats to test the hypothesis that he was looking at her, slightly annoyed that this was taking away from her morning reading time on the way to work. Casually, from her new vantage point she would sweep the car with her eyes so that he wouldn't suspect she was looking for him in specific and sure enough those amber eyes would be shamelessly focused in her direction nearly every time.

Now that she knew she was being observed Maka found she was spending more time in the mornings on her appearance. The hair she put up in pigtails—for the ride to work, as she would rewind it into a serviceable bun in the bathroom at work before heading to her desk—was carefully blown dry and combed following her shower. The plain black suit jacket and knee length pencil skirt sets she wore, of which she had many, were lint rolled to perfection. The pale pastel dress shirts she bought were pressed and the collars tightly folded. The only thing that deserved a second glance were the shoes she wore to make the walk from home to subway and subway to work, as she well knew her buckled combat boots didn't fit with the image she projected. Sadly, she had even polished those to a high shine despite having been fond of their scuffed and worn look. Her science textbooks told her observation changed the way atoms behaved, and she could believe it now that she was the one at the bottom of a stranger's microscope.

Fall faded to winter and everyone on the subway car took on a look of chilly sameness in their dark pea coats and trenches, but furtive glances from her ever changing perches confirmed new details about the man: suits in charcoal, white shirts, black ties, silver tie clip, fashionable silver and onyx rings (but none on the left ring finger), elaborate watch, polished black shoes, dour expression. Some white patches of hair on the front left side of his head told her he might have a youthful face but it was possible he wasn't as young as she suspected. Plenty of people went grey early, so it was hard to guess age reliably. Besides, there were weird treatments out there that could mask all sorts of indicators of age. Maka thought about her value sized bottle of generic lotion, and a sad tube of mauve lipstick she had thrown into a drawer somewhere and wondered if maybe Liz was right and she needed to revamp her beauty regimen.

When Maka had told Liz, Patti, and Tsubaki about her subway almost-stalker a couple weeks ago the reactions for the women had been extremely varied:

"Is he cute? Go talk to him!" Patti, the artist.

"You're being careful right? Maybe you should take a different way to work." Tsubaki, the police officer.

"Does he look like he has money? Wait, scratch that, if he's taking the subway obviously not." Liz, the esthetician.

Over drinks her friends had a merry time of conjecturing how this situation would play out, but they were all absolutely sure that so long as Maka wasn't really feeling threatened then it was a good thing hot guys were noticing her. She hadn't mentioned he was handsome, but they inferred it without her input. It was not the way she had wanted that conversation to go, with the sisterhood of the travelling cocktails deciding she needed a more robust romantic life. Work was absorbing enough as it was, trying to claw her way past the tigers in the Finance department.

There were a couple days the man hadn't been there, just last week, and Maka had felt unaccountably disappointed. Familiarity was comfort, she realized, and interruption in the routine had left her feeling off balance. Work had gone much slower, her formulas in her spreadsheets had had mistakes in them that she only caught on her second edit, and Maka's normally checked temper had flared as the copier ran out of staples halfway through her job and she kicked it so hard there was still a chip in the bottom of the plastic casing. The copier was the winner in that battle, as she iced swollen toes that night under the light of the TV in her condo. Not even the gym had evened her out like it normally did, but it did provide an edge of exhaustion to her bad mood.

Today the man had reappeared, black trench over yet another charcoal suit. His reappearance had improved her mood so drastically she had already caught his eyes twice this trip alone when usually she pretended to ignore him. Maka was mortified that the second time their eyes met she blushed like a schoolgirl. An independent woman in the dusk of her twenties did not need regression of this sort complicating her life. The ride to work was all too short.

Getting up, this was where she usually left him to continue his path but he stood as she did and got in the crush of people escaping out of the humidity and unnatural warmth of the car. Just a few people behind her, she noticed he was taller up close than she had assumed from a distance. The stale air of the underground seemed more vivid somehow as Maka stuffed her book in her satchel and zipped it quickly. She was always a fast walker, but she might have put a little extra pep in her step today as she pushed through the exit turnstiles and climbed the stairs to the street.

The coat Maka had chosen was a little too thin for the weather that wasn't quite cold enough for snow but smelled of it on the wind. Pigtails whipping around, Maka put Tsubaki's instruction to good use and peeked behind her to see that same head of salt and pepper hair she half-hoped and half-feared would be there. Long legs had easily kept pace with her until now and instead of heading straight towards the tall glass and steel building that housed her office she deviated towards one of her favorite lunch places. They wouldn't be open now, but she didn't want to lead a stalker straight to her workplace!

Warming up from adrenaline, Maka slowed her pace to see if he caught up to her and passed. It only took a moment for her to note he matched her slower pace, and that was plenty enough to activate all the defensive instincts that she had cultivated in martial arts classes from grade school till college. This wasn't a match for points, this was for real! It was so disappointing, she had really thought he might be a person she would want to get to know until he decided to go actual stalker.

Being the kind of person who got to the office early, Maka knew the crowd on the sidewalk would thin out the closer she got to the tiny business district that provided lunch to all the professionals. There would be no reason for him to go there except to follow her, and she wanted to be actually sure he was coming for her before she did something drastic. Meanwhile, on their trip towards the shuttered businesses the amber eyed man had closed the gap as Maka had frantically tried to think of what the best course of action was.

"Excuse me," the words didn't alarm her, but the hand gripping her shoulder sure did.

Maka exhaled and reacted exactly as years of training dictated when she felt threatened and was attacked from the back. What proceeded was a fairly difficult to explain maneuver that started with her elbow in his gut and then a twirl to get her fist in his face.

"Fuck!" hunched over and clutching a very bloody nose, the man didn't look like he was any kind of threat to her now, if he ever had been. "Ow, sorry, I didn't mean to be vulgar… That's a solid punch you have, miss." He spoke the beautifully enunciated words to his shoes.

"You were following me!" Maka was still poised in a defensive fighting position, tilted slightly sideways with feet spread a tad and solidly balanced. "You grabbed me!"

"Technically true on both counts." He was uncurling slowly, backing up a step to emphasize his respect for her need for space between them. Opening up a few buttons on his coat he dug out his pocket square and proceeded to use it to stop the flow of blood from his nose. "Perhaps I didn't properly consider the implications of my actions in this case."

"I should call the cops on you," Maka always thought of Tsubaki when she thought of police officers, but the odds that her friend would be the one to answer a random call were infinitesimal.

"And risk me claiming assault? That doesn't seem like a very logical next step." He was clearly still in a lot of pain, and the handkerchief was muffling his words a bit, but he didn't seem angry. "I have a better suggestion."

Maka relaxed her fighting pose, realizing she looked ridiculous when he was the one who was injured and behaving in a non-aggressive fashion. "I'm listening."

"A block back we passed a coffee shop. I suspect you still have forty minutes prior to your workday, and I'd like a chance to explain." The near monotone he spoke in was doing as much to calm her as anything. Now that her blood was cooling she was feeling the chill again, and her now less frantic brain knew if she didn't at least give him the chance she'd always wonder what this was about.

"Fine, that seems reasonable. But I warn you I have excellent intuition and if I think you're lying or I don't like what you tell me, I reserve the right to demand you leave first so that I can get to work without the threat of being observed."

"I can agree to that." He gestured towards the shop. "Would you like to lead the way?" There was no indication from his expression or inflection that it was a joke, but something about the way he looked at her told Maka he was making a joke. It didn't seem very funny to her.

* * *

You could tell a lot about a man from their watch, or lack of one, these days. Maka had spent enough time observing CEOs in boardrooms to get a bead on what people wore as symbols of status from designer clothes to fancy scarves and jewelry. The watch this man was currently cleaning blood off the face of was obscenely expensive. This wasn't the kind of watch someone bought to show they were climbing the corporate ladder, that was the kind of watch someone had when they were already at the top of said ladder. It was not electronic in any way, so it spoke to a certain conservativism or traditional bent. There weren't a lot of dials, so he appreciated simplicity. No gemstones or flashy parts to stick out and catch on clothes, so he must be practical.

But none of this mattered if he was a creepy stalker, and Maka tried to reserve her judgment and stop this inclination to give him the benefit of the doubt. His words should stand alone, and something inconvenient like attraction to him wasn't relevant.

"I'm not used to explaining myself." He stared at the lopsided coffee heart drawn on his cappuccino with a frown and used the spoon on the table in front of him to stir it into generic swirls before he looked at Maka with what might have been a smile. "Several months ago my position in the family business changed when my brother was judged unfit to continue."

"Sorry."

"No need to apologize. Restructuring is part of business. I assure you it was not personal." It was the first lie she could identify, but she didn't call him on it because it was about family. If he had asked her a straight question about how she felt about her mama and papa she couldn't say she'd be perfectly honest either. More than a decade later the pain of their divorce made her sick to her stomach if she dwelled on the memories.

He took a sip of his coffee, poised even with blood drying around the edge of his nostrils. The handkerchief had gone straight into the garbage when they entered the shop. "Upon his exit from the company he took a number of staff with him, including my driver Justin. I don't feel like staff is so easily replaceable, yet I also wasn't going to drive myself. The subway seemed an acceptable compromise."

Maka took a sip of her mocha, disliking how sweet it was but unwilling to throw away money either. "Surely you could have taken a taxi in the interim."

"I made my decision." The man said it gently, but with finality. So he wasn't the kind of person who changed his mind easily, she could respect that being cut of the same cloth. "When I began using public transit, I noticed you immediately due to our similar esthetic."

"Which is?" Maka had heard it all: boring, monochrome, plain, masculine… and she braced for the inevitable.

"Classic." At his response she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face, but she sure as hell could clamp down on it before it got out of control. He was like a snake charmer, with his steady voice and powerful aura of self-confidence.

Maka cleared her throat and schooled her mind to focus on the issue at hand. "Continue."

"I'm not adept at… pursuing women. Up until this point in my life it has largely been me declining the advances of others. I don't say this to brag, I would understand if you think it sounds like that, but I've long accepted the fact that money blinds people." He sighed, and Maka knew she was feeling pity for him despite herself. _Poor little rich boy_ , she tried to viciously point out in her mind, but how often had people tried to make friends with her to get a promotion or get her to do the extra work on a group report or big presentation. There were always people looking to better themselves without actually putting in the effort.

"So what made today different? Why couldn't you just say hello to me on the train like a normal person would? You have to understand following a girl the way you did is basically asking for quick personalized instruction in modern self-defense practices." Absently she cracked a knuckle, then guiltily stopped and forced her hands into a ball in her lap.

He drank his coffee and thought about her question. Maka was surprised at how much she appreciated his style of interaction, that he was deliberate and precise. She was chagrined with how much she liked him already, despite getting off on the wrong foot.

"I was out of town last week for a meeting and I realized that the interruption in my routine was…"

"Affecting your work?" She finished for him, secretly glad she wasn't totally off her rocker and that they really did have some sort of mutual connection.

"That's right." He narrowed his eyes at her, disliking that she could finish his sentence but then seemingly coming to accept it. "I didn't realize how little time I had to plan a course of action until you were already getting up to leave. My new driver starts this week."

He took a long sip of his coffee and watched her for her reaction. Following his train of logic wasn't hard. Maka had become part of his routine and he hadn't felt right without seeing her and knowing that he wouldn't have a chance to see her again he had to take some sort of action today. While he wouldn't say what caused his hesitation, it was easy for her to imagine having some because asking people out had never been her cup of tea.

All he had really done was touch her shoulder to get her attention, even if the setup to it had been creepy. It was time to decide if he was worth a chance, but as per usual she was more inclined to trust her gut quickly than to overthink what needed to be done.

"Maka Albarn." She held out a hand in introduction, able to meet his gaze without hesitation for the first time. "I'll give you my number too, but know that if you do anything else creepy I won't hesitate to both block and report you."

"Kidd Black." The name rang a bell but she wasn't sure why, and dismissed it to research later. He took her hand and the shake was as solid as a lifetime of training could make it. There were callouses in odd places on his hands, and Maka noted it silently. He didn't just push paper around. "Normally I don't give out my personal number, but I'd rather my professional contacts didn't hassle you yet. If it turns out I'm a good person after all, in your estimation, then you can evaluate the pros and cons yourself of say, meeting me for lunch at the office?" It was almost not a question, but the slightly unsure uptick at the last word was endearing.

Maka noted the time, and Kidd followed her glance towards the clock and nodded. He insisted on clearing the cups from the table and she waited for him to come back somewhat awkwardly. Perhaps the tale of how she had nearly broken his nose when they first met would be charming and hilarious, but he was correct that if this went sour he'd probably have a convincing battery charge.

"I am sorry about your nose, all things considered. Do you need anything for it? I've been punched more than a few times in the face so I know it smarts for a while afterwards."

A smile broke across his face slowly and then receded. "I've had some experience getting punched as well. Growing up I was pretty scrawny, and there's plenty of boys in boarding school that thought I'd be an easy target…." For the first time Maka saw something dangerous in his eyes, and a stray thought asked if the only reason he had a bloody nose was because he let her give him one. "I'm sure you could tell me a few stories over dinner this Friday."

* * *

"Cute." Liz stuffed another heap of salad in her face, while Maka knew she was really eyeing the hot roast beef sandwich that Maka had bought for lunch. "So you have a date. It's about damn time!"

"He might change his mind. There's a day or two of pain in front of him from that nose. Some people get weird about stuff like that, hold grudges."

Liz rolled her eyes. "You're already finding reasons why he shouldn't like you. You know you're super cute with killer legs and honest to God green eyes, and the whole idea that he'd ignore the prospect of getting in your pants because of a little thing like a nosebleed is silly."

With her eyebrows at full mast over the getting in her pants comment, Maka took a bite of sandwich and reflected on the morning. "Hey," she said around half chewed bread "Does Kidd Black ring a bell with you?"

Dropping her plastic fork into her greens, Liz dove into her bag and brought out her tablet. Her fingers flew over the screen like she was possessed until she found what she was looking for and turned it towards Maka with nearly trembling hands. It was a fairly serviceable side shot of Kidd walking into an office building in one of Liz's favorite gossip rags. Maka wouldn't touch the things because those publications were always full of people she never heard of getting in personal troubles she didn't care about. Bad enough she had to read the covers absently waiting in the grocery checkout.

"Liz, I already knew he came from money, what does this matter?"

"O. M. G. Maka you don't even understand. He's the kind of guy that CEOs won't even mess with. Currently being groomed to take over for his father, and I know you know the name Mortimer J. Black."

Richer than Croesus. More influential than a dozen Senators. Currently producing half the weaponry the modern military of every first world country used, and being investigated for corruption by a special government committee. That Black.

"You know they hauled away your sweetie's big brother for possibly selling missiles to terrorists?"

Maka swallowed another bite of her sandwich in a suddenly thick and dry throat. She had just full on assaulted the younger son of the most dangerous man in the free world.

"You can't really tell from this picture, but he looks like he might be pretty hot."

"Yeah, he's pretty hot alright." Grabbing her cup of water and downing it to force the sandwich to stop sticking in her throat, Maka felt her fear wash over her and imagined herself pushing it all into a tiny ball and swallowing it. This morning over coffee they had been Kidd and Maka, and that wouldn't change no matter what they were doing in the future. Maka was not about to demonize or worship someone for who they were to the media.

Liz continued to gush and wildly conjecture while Maka finished her lunch grimly. Dinner would be the real litmus test and in the meantime she'd be haunted by a vision of his face as they had parted in front of the coffee shop.

He had looked hungry.


	2. Chapter 2

Blurgh RL delays. Ever have a shitty week at work that seemed to turn into a shitty month somehow? That was October in a nutshell.

Mmmm so I have to write two dinner scenes for two different stories and make them distinct enough that they don't bore anyone reading both? Challenge accepted.

Disclaimer: see part 1

* * *

Kidd eyed the table once more, adjusting the candle slightly until he felt he had found the true center of the rectangle. It was hard to eyeball something like that, unlike how he'd easily adjusted the tablecloth. He'd declined a menu or water until his companion arrived, thinking how he could easily drink enough while nervous to necessitate a bathroom trip soon after Maka sat down. Whatever variable he could control to assure this night was perfect, he would.

She didn't glide in so much as wobble, covering the distance with unsteady determination in her too high heels. From the way she seemed to be concentrating on her forward momentum Kidd figured someone had talked her into wearing something outside her comfort zone. He'd compliment them on their efforts someday, but not in Maka's hearing because it seemed like she wasn't totally on board from the way her face flushed on seeing him, coupled with pulling down the hem of the purple dress as if that would cover more thigh. They were very nice thighs, and he forced his eyes not to linger on them.

Once she was close enough, Kidd stood up to greet her. "Maka, you look lovely. I'm pleased you could join me this evening." It was difficult to keep from extending a hand out as if this were a business meeting, and he cringed inwardly at his formal words. Kidd knew he wasn't particularly good at setting people at ease.

"I was told by my friends that if I didn't show up tonight they would commit me to a mad house." She paused when he didn't laugh. Objectively he understood the joke, but he was troubled that she was reluctant to see him. "Because I'd be crazy not to… darn it all I told them I'm bad at being entertaining."

He pulled out her chair and she sat fairly gracefully, if tilting on the path down, and seemed much more at home once all he could see was the v-neck that exposed her collarbone and a small swath of skin. The hint of sensuality was more intriguing to him than he would have admitted as an attentive waiter brought them menus and water. They both took time to read the menu, but Kidd quickly decided and spent the majority of the companionable silence peeking at Maka.

There was the soft glint of gold from the braided choker around her neck but otherwise she wasn't ornamented. He was used to women practically refracting from every angle they were so loaded down with trinkets and gems. Over the course of dozens of subway rides he felt like he had memorized her face, but he still found it interesting from the curve of her nose to the way her eyebrows moved and her eyes narrowed as she considered something.

"Oh, how's your face, by the way?" Maka said it causally, but he could see she was tense, and she wouldn't meet his eyes. No entrée list was that interesting.

"Just fine, and it had the added bonus of making my managers think I had been in a fist fight prior to work which ultimately worked in my favor." He saw her finally look up in surprise, searching for sarcasm in his words. Actually, it _had_ made the executives that reported to him much more hesitant and respectful. Asura had commanded people around him with both charisma and fear, and Kidd didn't have the kind of personality to sweep in and carry a room like his brother. Their altercation really had done him a favor this week. If only he had thought of getting in a physical fight to win respect earlier. A couple of the executives that had been favorites of his brother could use a fist to the face, in his estimation.

"I'd say anytime, but I don't think either of us wants that." When Maka smiled at him he felt like no matter how the night turned out from here, he'd have that smile to take home. Internally he gave himself a smack for thinking like that, ever the pessimist.

"Once was enough for me, I'm astonished you didn't split a knuckle."

She blushed prettily. "I still use the heavy bag here and there to keep my callouses in good form, but it isn't like I compete anymore. I stopped that in college when my coursework got too demanding to support the trips out of town."

"I can relate. Every now and then I make it to the shooting range, but all that free time I thought I'd have as an adult never seemed to materialize. Particularly these days."

Maka's expression softened. She probably had come here nervous, fearing the worst, and Kidd didn't want to be anything less than authentic tonight. He gave himself roughly half a day tomorrow before someone called with some new finding from the special investigation team he'd assembled for an internal audit about his brother's dealings. Had to enjoy the good times while they lasted.

"I remember when I thought I'd be able to go to work and then go home and read books all the rest of the day. As if the only thing in the way was school. It was a nice dream." Maka picked a piece of nonexistent lint off her sleeve. "I guess I could still do that if I wanted to ignore cleaning or grocery shopping or friends."

"I don't have any of that and I still don't have time for reading." Kidd sighed a little.

"You don't have friends?"

From the way she smiled he knew she meant to catch him poorly wording a response, but when he paused too long in contradicting her he caught the beginnings of pity sparking. "Friendship gets peculiar for me. People act differently before and after they find out my family affiliations, usually. Meeting people who know my whole biography better than I do seemed to be the way of the world from end of high school on up. I'm either a death dealer or a patriot, or both."

"That doesn't answer the question." Maka chided.

"No, I don't suppose it did." Black Star might be considered a friend, after all these years. Rivalries in middle school that ended up as a fist fight in high school and a kind of casual association since might count. Kilik from work he'd trust with just about anything, and they had had some discussions that were not directly work related, so he might count as well. "I can think of one long time friend in particular, but we didn't start out that way. He hated me for years because he thought I was trying to steal the spotlight from him."

"I had a friend like that too. One day she walked up to me and accused me of trying to get her boyfriend's attention right before she pulled a handful of hair out of my scalp. I gave her a black eye, and she gave me a migraine." Liz had been a volatile teenager. "It turned out he'd been cheating on her with a girl who sat next to me in calculus and the rumor mill pointed the finger at the wrong person. She did apologize to me not long after the truth came out. After that we kept saying hi in the halls, then chatting, and then eventually…"

So she forgave friends easily. It might have been natural to hold a grudge in that situation, but instead she had turned it around. Would he be able to so easily forgive in her shoes? He wouldn't bet on it. Kidd spent so much of his life in a moral gray zone that allowing ambiguity into his private life sounded exhausting.

The waiter came, took their order, then disappeared after a discreet refill of their waters.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

Kidd felt his muscles stiffen. Here is where things usually started falling apart. Women always wanted to know crazy things about him or about his work, as if showing interest in the production and distribution of weaponry wasn't a huge red flag. Ethical quandaries were just as troubling to Kidd as someone having a lack of such concerns. Did he like the family business? He wasn't sure. But he was a fixer, and so long as problems were dropped into his lap he'd approach them methodically. Enemies of the state this month might be allies next month.

"Are the white bits of your hair natural?" She said it shyly, but gave him a funny look when he let out a shaky laugh. "Bad question?"

"No, not at all. Yes, they're natural. I had a few white hairs in front as early as middle school, and now they're full on stripes. I turned thirty this year but people assumed I was lying about my age at the party. It isn't uncommon for society women to have multiple 29th and 30th birthdays, and they thought I was normalizing the trend for men. It was very hard to convince them otherwise."

The twinkle in those fantastically green eyes of hers told Kidd that Maka enjoyed hearing about him inadvertently appeasing the vanity of a load of old rich ladies. So she had a lively sense of the ridiculous, too. Everything he was reading from her was making him more hopeful. Asura had told him again and again that he was the death of every party, or alternatively that any girl that went for Kidd probably had a necrophilia fetish since he was as lively as a corpse in conversation and pasty to boot. Maka seemed to find him passable company, allowing him to brush those deep seeded feelings of inadequacy aside.

The appetizer arrived and he was pleased to see Maka was neither picky nor was she reticent about eating. Not thin from starving herself, then, which made sense given that she had indicated she was athletic. It was nice when what people said turned out to be more than smoke and mirrors.

"So what made you pick this particular place?" She was spearing another stuffed mushroom from the plate, clearly pleased with his choice of starter.

Kidd knew he was better off being honest with her, so he laid it out. "I figured you'd want to go dutch so I chose a place prohibitively expensive expecting you'd be practical enough in that case to let me pick up the bill." He ended his flat statement with a conciliatory smile, as Maka slightly choked on her mushroom and began to cough. She took a deep drink of water while sending him dark looks. Kidd didn't like it when people successfully second-guessed him either.

"It isn't often someone gets the drop on me like that. I want to be mad, but I also kind of admire that you pulled it off." There was an edge to her voice, letting him know she wasn't totally at peace with it. "In that case I'll buy us dessert after."

Giving her an awkward smile, he wondered if he casually put his hand on hers if she would pull away or let them touch. Her hand was currently resting against the thick stem of her water glass, seemingly soft. Kidd well knew how much force it could have behind it, so he stayed wary and did nothing.

Gentlemanly caution felt a lot like cowardice.

* * *

"… I remember when I quit practice, but the why is a little fuzzier. Around college I didn't have the time to train the way I wanted to, so I was practicing forms a lot. I got pretty darn good at anything that had a long staff as a base—spears and other things in that family." Maka was cracking every corner of her crème brulee and pulverizing the crystalline sugar into tiny pieces that were getting mixed into the layer below. Kidd tried to concentrate on her words instead of her messy dessert. It was causing him to twitch a little, despite telling himself to chill out. His therapist had told him plenty of times that life was inherently messy. Order in all things was not a practical goal.

"I hit a wall where striving for excellence felt the same. School, internships, martial arts—it was all about climbing ladders to beat some imaginary ideal. I guess work is that for me now." She looked thoughtful and took a bite of the brulee. "I figured if I wasn't doing it for myself, who was I doing it for? I donated a bunch of my gear the next day."

"That sounds like a pretty hasty decision. The next day?"

Maka's smile was rueful. "I don't like to hesitate when I know something is right."

Her words hit at a core of some value in him that gave Kidd chills. Beautiful, formidable, principled—Maka was like a dream woman. She was more improbable than he ever would have hoped for, and he wanted to be suspicious of his good fortune. Faced with the unknown, he tried to think about how to proceed.

One the one side a voice not unlike his father's reminded him that patience and depth of knowledge was the best way to approach a situation when you care about the outcome. That voice said that he should offer to drive Maka home and then arrange another date as their calendars permitted. Caution and respect were the watchwords here.

The other side of his mind sounded a terrible lot like Asura, urging him to invite her back to his place for a nightcap. From her blushes at his attempts at flirting, she was not immune to his physical charms—meager as he had always assumed them to be. If it was the case that she was too good to be true, at the very least he could take a vivid memory of that athletic body with him into the future.

Sighing, Kidd pushed away his own untouched dessert. "It's nice that you can tell what's right so quickly. I'm only just now being given the opportunity to make decisions that matter in my life."

"I'm not saying there weren't plenty of people all around telling me what they thought I should do…" Maka qualified, seeing that Kidd's mood had gone dark. "In the end what they thought didn't matter as much to me as what I felt. It was my time and effort, I was going to be proud of what I decided."

Maybe Maka was the fierce bit of backbone he needed to clean up the mess Asura had left. It gave him an unfamiliar feeling of warmth to think that this golden haired angel might step with him into the uncertain future, even if it was only for a little while. If they ever caught Asura, who was probably in some safe house a million miles from anywhere and rolling around in his embezzled funds, Kid was going to fucking destroy him.

"You seem to know how to cut through to the truth of things. I'd say come work for me and help me untangle the mess I'm sure you've read about in the papers, but I don't date employees." Kidd allowed himself to finally relax a little in his seat, his shoulders rolling forward the barest amount.

Maka smiled that megawatt smile of hers that he figured might be lurking around somewhere, but he hadn't expected to see until they knew one another better. "Pretty cocky, aren't you. Assuming we'll be going on a lot more dates, hm?"

Kidd sputtered, feeling confused when he thought for sure he had read all her signals correctly. Calming him by putting her hand on his, Kidd realized that Maka had a lot more courage than he did. She was able to do the things that he merely fretted about.

"I'd like that. In case you weren't sure." Her fingers laced with his briefly, but they lingered long enough to let him know she was on board to explore this connection they'd made before returning back to her water glass.

* * *

If Maka felt any discomfort at getting into the backseat of a car with him, she did an admirable job of keeping her head high as she wobbled her way into it anyway. "Is the tinting on those windows even legal?" She shivered in her coat as the wind blew against her legs and probably up her dress. No doubt she was making risk calculations even as she spoke.

"I like black, and I like privacy." Kidd shrugged a little. If it was harder to aim for his head from the street, all the better, but he didn't let Maka in on the more sinister concerns in his life.

The ride to Maka's condo felt like it took a fraction of a second. There was little to no traffic, and his new driver and part-time bodyguard Harvar was efficient in his chosen routes. Harvar seemed like the kind of man Kidd felt would be extremely valuable for the organization as a whole in the future, but driving was a decent test of his discretion to start.

Maka in an enclosed space was infinitely more complicated than Maka across a dinner table had been. Even though there was plenty of room—another person could have easily sat between them—it felt like she was a breath away. In addition, now that there was no tablecloth to shield his view he was getting an eyeful of creamy thigh. Both of them were keeping their hands in their laps, but Kidd couldn't help but imagine hitting a pothole and ending up sprawled on top of her. An act of God would be pretty damn convenient right then.

Getting to her place without incident only went further to prove to him that there was no God except Black Star, according to the gospel of Black Star. Meanwhile they had had plenty to talk about.

"...You can't possibly believe that! Human nature isn't so easily bottled up and calculated out. You have to leave room for mistakes otherwise you're striving to be, I don't know, inhuman!" Maka stepped out, accepting his hand, but their argument was no less vehement.

Kidd was trying to keep his mind on what they were saying, but every time Maka had crossed her legs one way and then the other he had forgotten at least one word in ten. "So you'll just forgive and forgive indefinitely while people take advantage of you? You have to draw the line somewhere. People may not be infallible, but you can strive for it! Is this your building?"

Maka seemed to get whiplash from the subject change, blinking hard several times in succession and then laughing at herself. "Yeah, I hope you aren't offended if I don't invite you up. I wouldn't want to _take advantage_ of anyone accidentally, apparently." Realizing the double entendre only too late, she clammed up and blushed angrily. Kidd wasn't sure if the anger was for him or herself.

"I'd like to think nothing about tonight could be considered a mistake, unlike our first meeting."

"I had a good time, even including right now wanting to throttle you for being completely intractable. You'll come to see it my way in time." Maka had a hand on her hip, lit from behind by the fluorescent lobby lights of her building. A few quick button presses and then she would be behind a security door and out of his grasp for who knew how long.

Indecision, balancing options, Kidd felt his usual inertia and hated himself a little. This was his chance and he was blowing it…

The hand that had been at her hip cupped the side of his face and then Maka's lips were sliding over his. Her lipstick was so slick he could feel it smear between them, and sensual feelings he almost assumed he was immune to short circuited his heart. Kidd's blood careened through his body, making him hyper aware of how his hands had automatically pulled her closer by cupping Maka's extremely firm behind. There was no way she could mistake his interest as their bodies molded together briefly.

"Careful…" Maka had pulled back from their kiss to half growl the word at him, and Kidd's hands dropped away from her body like she was molten. She took one step back and cleared her throat before catching his eye again. He was mortified that he had gotten so forward with her, uncharacteristically.

"Like I said," Kidd tried to recover his poise, swiping a hand through his white streaks. "Not infallible, but we should strive for it anyway."

"Lucky for you, I'm the forgiving type." And her smile was considering as she swept away to leave Kidd in a cloud of aroused confusion. When had he become this kind of man? He supposed there were still surprises left and growth to achieve in his life, at any age. "I'll see you soon, Kidd. I hope."

Once he was back in the car he and Harvar locked glances briefly, steadily, but all the driver did was tighten his thin lips and nod. Kidd slumped into his seat and examined his calendar from his phone. He'd see Maka again soon if he had to kill someone to free up time in his schedule, he swore.


End file.
